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“BEHIND THE CURTAIN” column by Jim VandeHei and Mike Allen, “Immigration heads for slow death”: “In private conversations, top Republicans on Capitol Hill now predict comprehensive immigration reform will die a slow, months-long death in the House. … Republican leaders will huddle with their members this afternoon to plot their public strategy. But after holding countless listening sessions, it is clear to these leaders that getting even smaller, popular pieces of reform will be a tough sell. The House plans a piecemeal approach: a border-security bill this month, maybe one or two items a month in the fall. Rep. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) held a town meeting last week where 25 of the 100 people spoke out on immigration — and every single one of them argued for staying clear of anything remotely resembling the Senate-passed bill. ‘Our constituents don’t trust our government,’ Cotton said. …

“Top Republican and Democratic leaders see the momentum swinging decidedly against getting a deal this Congress. … ‘Republicans would remain stuck in a defensive, reactionary posture with persuadable Latino voters,’ said Luke Frans, executive director of Resurgent Republic, a conservative research group that did extensive polling and focus groups with Hispanic voters in 2012. … ‘The belief among House Republicans is that they’re going to do well in the midterms, and that instead of negotiating now from a position of weakness, they should wait until 2015,’ said a lobbyist close to House GOP leaders.” http://politi.co/187f8Cs

OUT THIS A.M. – “White House builds pressure on immigration,” by Carrie Budoff Brown: “The White House ramped up efforts to convince the House to act on immigration reform with the release of a report Wednesday touting the economic benefits of the Senate bill. The report was released ahead of a critical House Republican meeting Wednesday on immigration strategy, and it represented an opening move in the administration’s delicate bid to raise political pressure on the House without alienating persuadable Republican lawmakers.

“‘In the weeks ahead, the President and other senior members of the administration will publicly urge the House to follow in the Senate’s footsteps, in part by highlighting how immigration reform would strengthen the economy and reduce the deficit,’ White House spokesman Josh Earnest said. ‘We’ll also coordinate with the wide array of outside voices that are engaged in the effort to mobilize public support for reform.’ The report cites government reports and think tank data to argue that the Senate bill would increase economic growth, boost job creation and reduce the deficit. It marks the White House’s most explicit embrace yet of the Senate bill, although the report states that President Obama urges the House ‘to move this bill or similar legislation forward.’” See the 34-page report, “The Economic Benefits of Fixing Our Broken Immigration System.”http://bit.ly/10MsjDh

BREAKING: “Thomas E. Donilon, former national security adviser to President Barack Obama, will join the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) this month as a distinguished fellow. Donilon, who became a CFR member nearly two decades ago, will be based at the organization’s office in Washington, DC. ‘Tom Donilon has been at the center of consequential national security decisions over the last four and a half years, including winding down U.S. military engagement in Iraq and Afghanistan, increasing the U.S. profile in the Asia-Pacific region, and balancing the requirement for intelligence with the need to protect privacy,’ said CFR President Richard N. Haass. … Donilon … has worked closely with and advised three U.S. presidents since his first position at the White House in 1977 under President Jimmy Carter. He also served as assistant secretary of state and chief of staff at the State Department during the Bill Clinton administration. … Donilon was a partner at the international law firm O’Melveny & Myers.”

HOUSE GOP MINDMELD, after Speaker Boehner said House will vote on removing individual mandate: “The White House opened a Pandora’s box with its decision to delay ObamaCare’s employer mandate … Republicans are asking how the White House can justify delaying the law’s impact on big businesses -- but ignore individuals and families. And leading Democrats like Senator Harkin question whether the White House even has the legal authority at all. The White House is on an island. … Now, how will Washington Democrats stand with the president to protect big businesses from this 'train wreck' but not the American people?”

A LITTLE BIRD FROM THE STATE DEPT.: “Secretary Kerry has long been engaged on Egypt since he was in the Senate (indeed, during Tahrir Square I in 2011, he was the first Senator to call for Mubarak to step aside, which won him credibility with post-Mubarak Egyptians), and he has remained enormously focused on the rebuilding of Egypt's democracy and bolstering of Egypt economy. On his very first trip overseas as Secretary, he went to Cairo to push the Egyptian government towards inclusiveness and reform. He feels a personal stake in the outcome now. Over the days since protests began, after he had just returned from a 14 day overseas trip, his first phone call at 4 a.m. was to [U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne] Patterson. Kerry made nearly three dozen calls, often starting before 5 a.m., to foreign leaders throughout the weekend. He wasn't just on the phone for check-ins, he was navigating regional interests with Egyptian and regional stakeholders, including calls with Muhamed El-Baradei, Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr, Egyptian Defense Minister el Sissi, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, Qatari Foreign Minister al-Attiyah and Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal.

“Bottom line is he believes democracy takes time, and our focus needs to be on preventing violence and giving the Egyptian people a chance to succeed. The United States needs to give itself some room and preserve leverage to work with a transitional government. He's made it clear that a return to violence and an attempt to wipe out the Muslim Brotherhood is unacceptable and counterproductive, but that if they put their country on a path to a more sustainable and inclusive democratic transition -- with swift movement to parliamentary and presidential elections, with participation allowed for all parties -- then we want to support those efforts.”

EXCLUSIVE: Dick Keil is leaving Purple Strategies next month to move to Dallas to join ExxonMobil as Senior Adviser for Global Public Affairs. He joins the world's largest corporation (by revenue) after nearly seven years in media consulting, and, prior to that, a 20-year career at AP and Bloomberg (President George W. Bush dubbed him “Stretch”). Known around town as Reid Kellam's proud dad, Keill will take with him his passion for the Red Sox, Bruce Springsteen and, of course, the Grateful Dead. Joining him in Dallas will be his fiancé, Hillary DeParde. His proposal to Hillary occurred on June 21, in Dallas, the night before they went on their first house-hunting trip. UNKNOWN: Whether her cat, Sola, will get along with Keil's cat-friendly pug, Edgar. "Sola can always become an outdoor cat," Keil said. Korn/Ferry International handled the search for ExxonMobil, and Deneen Howell of Williams & Connolly advised Keil.

--From an email Purple founding partner Bruce Haynes sent to Purple's staff: “Dick is particularly adept at navigating the increasingly-complex and nonstop news cycle we live in today, and his skills will instantly be of great benefit to his new employer.”

FIRST LOOK – “Former Press Secretary to U.S. Vice President Biden, Elizabeth Alexander, Joins FTI Consulting as Managing Director in the Strategic Communications Segment” – Release, with West Palm Beach dateline: “FTI Consulting Inc., the global business advisory firm dedicated to helping organizations protect and enhance their enterprise value, today [will announce] that Elizabeth Alexander, a former aide and Press Secretary to U.S. Vice President Joseph R. Biden, Jr., has been appointed Managing Director with the firm’s Strategic Communications segment in Washington, D.C. Alexander will advise clients on communications strategies involving legislative, regulatory and investigative matters across broad sectors of the economy.

“Alexander began her five-year tenure with Vice President Biden in 2006, first as then-Sen. Biden’s Press Secretary and later as Communications Director. … Most recently, Alexander worked for the Department of Justice as a federal prosecutor, first in Washington, D.C., and then in Alexandria, Va. During this time, Alexander, who earned her law degree from Georgetown University Law Center, managed and prosecuted a large criminal caseload along with advising the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia on strategic planning and media relations.”

** A message from Fuels America -- Dear Congress: Three in four Americans support the Renewable Fuel Standard. They know this successful policy reduces our dependence on oil and creates domestic jobs. Now is not the time to tap the brakes. Learn more at http://bit.ly/19BZqMM. **

JONATHAN YAROWSKY joins WilmerHale’s Washington office: “Yarowsky will serve as chair of WilmerHale’s Legislative Affairs and Public Policy Practice, part of the Strategic Response and Counseling Group, further expanding the firm’s public policy and government relations capabilities. Yarowsky was previously a partner at [Patton Boggs] … He specializes in providing strategic advice to clients in an array of areas including antitrust, telecommunications policy, intellectual property, and administrative practice and procedure. Yarowsky also maintains a robust practice in congressional investigations as well as in antitrust representation and will join other firm lawyers in those practice areas at WilmerHale. … He served as Special Counsel to the President [Clinton], as General Counsel of the House Committee on the Judiciary, and as Chief Counsel of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Economic and Commercial Law."

“MASSIVE SWING” IN ATTITUDES ON SURVEILLANCE – Quinnipiac University National Poll: “American voters say 55-34 percent that Edward Snowden is a whistle-blower, rather than a traitor … In a massive shift in attitudes, voters say 45-40 percent the government’s anti-terrorism efforts go too far restricting civil liberties, a reversal from a January 10, 2010, survey … when voters said 63-25 percent that such activities didn’t go far enough to adequately protect the country. Almost every party, gender, income, education, age and income group regards Snowden as a whistle-blower rather than a traitor. … There is little difference among Democrats and Republicans … Some of the largest growth in those concerned about the threat to civil liberties is among men and Republicans, groups historically more likely to be supportive of governmental anti-terrorism efforts.

“‘The massive swing in public opinion about civil liberties and governmental anti-terrorism efforts [reflect] apparent shock at the extent to which the government has gone in trying to prevent future terrorist incidents,’ said Peter Brown, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. ‘The fact that there is little difference now along party lines … is in itself unusual … [I]t would be naive to see these numbers as anything but evidence of a rethinking by the public about the tradeoffs between security and freedom.”

“THE RE-EMERGENCE OF GEORGE W. BUSH,” by Maggie Haberman: “[I]n a twist few would have predicted even six months ago, Bush’s public approval rating recently eclipsed Obama’s. … [T]he Republican … appears to be in the early stages of settling into the role of elder statesman, on his own terms.. On Wednesday, Bush will speak at a citizenship ceremony event as his just-opened presidential library in Dallas … The 43rd president has spent most of his post-White House life in self-imposed political exile, staying at his home in Texas and far away from Washington, a world he never really took to. He endorsed Mitt Romney through the closing doors of an elevator. And Bush remained quiet as a backlash within his party — triggered largely by government spending on his watch — gave rise to the tea party movement … [H]is approval ratings – once as low as 23 -- have climbed to a seven-year high of 47 percent in a recent Washington Post poll.” http://politi.co/12lfL74

JOHN R. PHILLIPS (husband of LINDA DOUGLASS) nominated Ambassador to the Italian Republic and the Republic of San Marino: “John R. Phillips was founder and partner in the Washington, DC Law Firm of Phillips & Cohen, LLP from 1988 to 2013. He currently serves as Member and Chair of the President’s Commission on White House Fellowships. Mr. Phillips was previously appointed to this Commission in 1997. From 1988 to 1993, he was a member of the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference. In 1971, he founded the Center for Law in Public Interest for which he served as co-director for 17 years. He is the founder of Taxpayers Against Fraud and currently serves on its board of directors. He received a B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and a J.D. from the University of California Berkeley School of Law.”

--MORE BIO: “John R. Phillips is a nationally recognized attorney and expert on the False Claims Act (qui tam), a federal law under which citizens who identify and report fraud against the United States government may sue on behalf of the taxpayers. Phillips brought the Civil War-era law to the attention of Congress in the mid-1980’s. … He lives in Washington, D.C. with his wife, Linda Douglass, a former network news correspondent and, later, Obama administration spokesperson. The couple has a daughter, Dr. Katie Byrd, who lives in Washington, D.C. with her husband and son.”

ABOUT LAST NIGHT: A bipartisan group of women from the business, media and political world gathered to celebrate Stephanie Cutter and her new gig on CNN's upcoming “Crossfire” last night at Lois Romano's Kalorama home. Cutter was feted by dozens of women with whom she has worked, counseled and learned from over the years, as well as friends she's known since she first arrived in Washington, Sissy Estes and Kellie Meiman. Julianna Smoot, a friend of some 27 years, raised a toast and praised the house full of women and, especially, "one of the greatest and one of my favorites.”

TO TELL YOUR KIDS – “Ind. prof: “Film shows FDR in concealed wheelchair,” by AP’s Charles Wilson in Indianapolis: “A professor at an Indiana college says he has found film footage showing President Franklin Delano Roosevelt being pushed in his wheelchair, depicting a secret that was hidden from the public until after his death. Ray Begovich, a journalism professor at Franklin College south of Indianapolis, said Tuesday he found the eight-second clip while doing unrelated research in the National Archives in College Park, Md. The National Archives and the FDR Presidential Museum and Library couldn't say for certain if other such footage exists … Roosevelt contracted polio in 1921 at age 39 and was unable to walk without leg braces or assistance. … News photographers cooperated in concealing Roosevelt's disability, and those who did not found their camera views blocked by Secret Service agents …

“The film shows Roosevelt visiting the U.S.S. Baltimore at Pearl Harbor in July 1944. Eight seconds of the clip show Roosevelt exiting a doorway on the ship and being escorted down what is apparently a ramp. The wheelchair is not clearly visible because the view of the president is screened by a line of sailors -- perhaps deliberately -- but Roosevelt's distinctive white hat can be seen gliding past the men at a lower level. Roosevelt, at 6-foot-2, was likely taller than most of the soldiers. … Roosevelt's disability was virtually a state secret during his presidency.” See the video.http://bit.ly/15dLfdLRead the story. http://bit.ly/1bn61ws

DRIP, DRIP – WashPost A1, above fold, “$120,000 more went to assist McDonnells: Most of donor’s funds went to corporation governor ran with sister,” by Rosalind S. Helderman in Richmond: “A prominent political donor gave $70,000 to a corporation owned by Virginia Gov. Robert F. McDonnell and his sister last year, and the governor did not disclose the money as a gift or loan, according to people with knowledge of the payments. The donor, wealthy businessman Jonnie R. Williams Sr., also gave a previously unknown $50,000 check to the governor’s wife, Maureen, in 2011, the people said. The money to the corporation and Maureen McDonnell brings to $145,000 the amount Williams gave to assist the McDonnell family in 2011 and 2012 — funds that are now at the center of federal and state investigations. Williams, the chief executive of dietary supplement manufacturer Star Scientific Inc., also provided a $10,000 check in December as a present to McDonnell’s eldest daughter, Jeanine, intended to help defray costs at her May 2013 wedding, the people said. … All the payments came as McDonnell and his wife took steps to promote the donor’s company and its products.

“The payments to the corporation … offer the first public example of money provided by Williams that would directly benefit the governor and not just his family. … McDonnell viewed the payments to MoBo and to his wife as loans and not gifts, according to three people familiar with the transactions. … The name of MoBo, formed in 2005, apparently comes from the combination of the names ‘Maureen’ and ‘Bob.’ … Virginia Secretary of Health Bill Hazel said for the first time last week that he … met one-on-one with Williams in 2010 so the chief executive could pitch Star Scientific. Hazel said the meeting came at the urging of someone in the governor’s or first lady’s office, but he could not remember which. … He concluded that Williams’s product was ‘not ready for prime time.’” http://wapo.st/186fjL5

EGYPT’S NEW LEADERS – AP/Cairo: “Interim President Adly Mansour, 67, a judge: Mansour emerged from near-obscurity when he became head of the Supreme Constitutional Court, two days before Egypt's military chief announced last Wednesday that Morsi had been deposed … Army chief and Defense Minister Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, 58: … A graduate of the Egyptian military academy and the U.S. Army War College … Interim Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi, 76, a prominent economist: … one of the founders of the Egyptian Social Democratic party, one of several secular parties in the liberal grouping National Salvation Front. … Interim Vice President Mohammed ElBaradei, 71, former director of the U.N. nuclear watchdog agency: … ElBaradei … was the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency for nearly 12 years. He and the IAEA shared the Nobel Peace Prize in 2005.”

BEYOND THE BELTWAY – L.A. Times A1, “Ex-mayor keeps options open: [Antonio] Villaraigosa is out of office, but he’s not planning to fade away,” by Maeve Reston: “Heading off to Martha’s Vineyard for some downtime, he had only loose plans for a public speaking tour, a possible TV gig, an affiliation with a yet-to-be-named university or think tank, and a move from Getty House to Venice … Whatever he does in the coming months and years is likely to serve two ends: maintaining a carefully cultivated national political profile and seeking to boost his credibility as a centrist Democrat willing to take on the party’s traditional allies …

“[H]e was … highly sought-after … at … Mitt Romney’s recent gathering of his donors in Utah, winning favorable reviews for his speech on education and pension reform. … [H]e is branding himself as a champion of what he calls the ‘radical middle’ … He is mulling a run for governor once California Gov. Jerry Brown leaves office and … is planning a ‘listening tour’ … across the state and nation.”

MEDIAWATCH – Craig Gordon, POLITICO managing editor, emails the staff: “Dan Berman will take over as White House Editor. Dan came to us as one of the original POLITICO Pro hires, running the Energy team as a Deputy Managing Editor of Pro … He’s recently been wearing two hats – as Deputy Congress Editor and Money and Politics Editor. … Edward-Isaac Dovere will become a senior reporter covering the White House. … We’ve asked Dan to continue backing up Congress Editor Rachel Van Dongen for a bit as we look for his replacement. And we’re asking Deputy White House Editor Rebecca Sinderbrand … to hold down the fort at the White House until Dan slides over.”

** A message from Fuels America: A new poll shows that 82 percent of environmentalists believe that the Renewable Fuel Standard is important for cutting emissions and safeguarding our environment. We must protect the RFS. See the poll results, and learn how you can support renewable fuel in America: http://bit.ly/19BZqMM. **